Missing for 11 years and presumed dead, a Pennsylvania woman surfaced in Florida, telling police her depression caused her to hitchhike her way to Florida.

Eleven years ago Brenda Heist dropped her two children off at school at Lititz, PA and then vanished. None of her possessions were missing and her car was found in a nearby county. Dinner she was preparing was found defrosting at her home.

Schofield, who visited Heist in Florida, said she was going through a divorce at the time of her disappearance, which made her depressed. After dropping her children off at school Heist sat in a park and cried. That’s when two women and a man invited her to join them as they hitchhiked to Florida.

In a news conference on Wednesday, her ex-husband said he was angry because her leaving affected both his status in the community and their children.

“There were people in the neighborhood who would not allow their children to play with my children,” he said.

Her husband has re-married and her two children are now 19 and 23.

When Heist is released from custody, she will likely spend some time with her brother in Florida and then with her mother in Texas, Schofield said.

“She has a birth certificate and a death certificate so she’s got a long way to make this right again,” Schofield said. “She’s going to take it slow with her family, I’m sure, and it’s going to be a long process.”